Arthur’s Seat challenge

Finally the ice has (almost) cleared from Holyrood Park, so I was able to do my homebrew “fitness test” to start my training. I figure that timing myself over three laps of Holyrood Park / Arthurs Seat will be a good yardstick. I can come back and do the same course in a few months and see if I’ve got faster. There’s little in the way of traffic lights or junctions, and it’s a mixture of steepish climbs, fast descents and a fair bit of flat road too.

Notes: Start/end at zebra crossing near Holyrood Palace. Snowgates were shut at bottom of hill, requiring a short muddy/icy excursion. Lots of pedestrians around, but didn’t have to stop for traffic.

Heartrate was 160-163 climbing the hill, which felt sustainable. Went up to 167 after the final steepest bit of the climb, which didn’t feel so sustainable! Tried to keep at 150-160bpm round the rest of the lap, but ran out of gears on the downhill.